Classical astrology was deterministic and the positions of the planets and stars were anything but arbitrary. As I wrote, the ancients thought the heavenly bodies were divine beings. For them motion was a sign of intelligence.
Porphyry is right. A shift in position of even three or four light-years in any direction would cause the familiar constellations to shift. The vast majority of the stars we observe in our constellations are less than 1,000 light years away. By contrast our galaxy has a diameter of 100,000 ltyrs and might contain 400 million stars. (Being seen by the naked eye would seem to be a form of privilege. Do stars we can’t see affect our fate?)
Many thought experiments are possible of course. But what mechanism is being described based on the arbitrary positions of heavenly bodies? Gravity depends on position in space but as a force is anything but arbitrary.
Last year I read an enormously entertaining book about the astrological significance of Pluto. (I try to keep my hand in.) The author was at least consistent. Before Pluto was discovered in 1930 it had no effect. When it lost its planetary status in 2010 its effect stopped. So I ask again. What mechanism is being described that can be altered by a vote of a body of astronomy beurocrats?
Ancient astrology is against the Law of Moses. Astronomy is not. The two can be become one however.
Astronomy is necessary for making a calendar, keeping track of the hours with a sun dial, and determining what direction north is either by using the Big Dipper constellation or if you know the hour of day; not always exactly accurate but good enough for most things. Things that would take a long time to notice and figure out on your own without a teacher or book.
Do stars we can’t see affect our fate?
Stars that can be seen and that have been seen affect my fate, that’s why it’s called Visual Astrology.
Why?
Visual Astrology is based on the Natal Chart.
I cannot see stars from my birth year but certain stars shape my character, my vocation, and stories in my life.
I cannot tell you which star in a constellation is being used without the help of research and software.
Second, there is at least one astrological object that is calculated and cannot be seen.
what did this enormously entertaining author say?
Curiously, or perhaps not so curiously, I’ve never read an apologia for belief in astrology. It seems to be simply obvious to the practitioner.
Steefen, if I were a Martian, sharing none of your cultural assumptions about the way things work, and you had to explain why I should believe in astrology, how would you go about it?
Stars that can be seen and that have been seen affect my fate, that’s why it’s called Visual Astrology.
So even the telescope undermines astrology!
I’m 42, so I would have to know which stars are 42 light years away to know what the stars were doing during my real time of birth if, looking at the sky right now. And I don’t know where to begin figuring that out.
F=GMm/d^2 I suppose is the first step in trying to map out a solution but it can only account for two objects, and since I won’t be able to figure the universal gravitational constant, the mass of the objects, nor the distance between them, I really have no idea. And there’s a lot more than two stars out there, so that’s another problem. (The n-body problem)
All the Light that ever existed was squished so very tiny into a space smaller than Planks Length and it became an object of mass that exploded one day into Light again. While all the Light was in this very tiny ball there was no such thing as time, speed and distance.
That is astonishing!!!
It truly is. If we can still use the word “Divine” and have it mean something, surely it is in the capacity of humans to look and to see and to understand the universe in which we find ourselves!
Why with a mind like that he is almost one of us gods!
-Zeus about Odysseus in the Iliad
The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
-Genesis 11:5-6 NRSVUE
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